As I mentioned in the article for Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）"Romantique" (1980), this was the album that had the eclectic singer-songwriter make a sea change in her sound, going from pure New Music to a Ryuichi Sakamoto-mentored technopop/European feel. It had never been done before and happily for Ohnuki, it was a great move in her career.
I'm happy to say that some kind uploader recently put up "Futari" (Two People) which I mentioned very briefly near the end of the "Romantique" article. Written and composed by Ohnuki, this track bent more towards the European side of things, and as soon as I first heard it, I immediately got reminded of Mary Hopkin's "Those Were The Days" (I think I referred to this same song in another article on the blog). My imagination created this scene of an ennui-laden torch singer draped over a grand piano as she languidly sang the lyrics before popping off the piano as soon as the refrain started and encouraged the audience to sing along. The thing that distinguished "Futari" from "Those Were The Days" was that sudden melodic shift from France or Germany to South America. Ohnuki was definitely traveling across continents for this one.
And once again, I give you Mary Hopkin!
Just wanted to give a shout out to how much I appreciate your post. Will be checking out your other entries. (I see Akina Nakamori on the side here :') ) Thanks for great music - will be listening to this Mary Hopkin one too. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteHello, Monica. Thanks very much for your comments. and I hope you to continue to search things out in the blog. Yep, I've got quite a lot of Akina here as well. I take it you're a fan of hers?
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